‘Why would I trust you to do that?’
‘I don’t care if you trust me. Watch over my shoulder the whole time for all I care. But look, Kore.’ He jabs a finger at a scroll. ‘You’ve ripped this one, and this one has ink on it. It’s a good thing you revoked xenia because you would have broken it with this.’
I’m suddenly aware that I’m staring at him, and I scramble for a response to this absolute madness – what sort of tactic is this? ‘I don’t think xenia was created with slightly marked parchment in mind.’
‘Well, if it doesn’t take that into consideration then the entire concept has gone down in my estimation. So, come on, tell me what to do and I’ll do it. Just stop hurting my books.’
I consider this. It’s probable he’s here to spy on what I’m doing. But I don’t particularly care. I’m not keeping my plans a secret; I’m flaunting them in his face and saying he can’t stop me at every opportunity.
Of course it’s also possible he’s telling the truth, and he does want to help, and he really does just love his scrolls. It’s unlikely, but I glance away, a warm feeling fluttering in my stomach. I do not have the time to explore why the thought of this man, a god of a literal realm, caring so much about a library is appealing to me. I have bigger problems. Problems so large that my warm feeling turns to nausea. It’s at least safe to look up again.
‘Well, I’m not using the books today anyway,’ I say. ‘We don’t have time. Something needs to happen now.’
I realize as I turn from him that I saidweand I really, really hope Hades wasn’t paying attention.
‘What?’ Hades is chasing after me like this isn’t his realm. A smile twitches its way on to my lips.
‘Not the whole thing, obviously,’ I say. ‘But for now I need to get victims away from their oppressors.’
‘I’m not sure all of humanity can be easily sorted into victim or oppressor,’ he comments dryly.
‘No, obviously not.’
I swing the palace’s front door open but before I can leave Hades is pushing it closed again, leaning against it with his arms crossed. He’s so close to me that I have to make a conscious effort not to jump back. I wonder if he knows how intimidating this is and then almost slap myself because of course he does.
Well, I won’t let him push me back.
‘Do you even realize how audacious it is to march into another god’s realm and change things without so much as consulting them?’ His eyebrow is quirked and his smile is so patronizing that my retort flees from my mind as I concentrate on not slapping it off his damn face.
Condescending git.
‘Yes, I do. Next question?’
His other eyebrow joins the first, both shooting towards his hairline. He laughs uncertainly and I take a moment to relish the fact that that’s the only laugh I seem to hear from him. I’ve considered myself a lot of things.Pretty. Obedient. Demure. Unsettlingmight just be my favourite.
‘You’ve never been one for politeness but this is an excessive lack of it, even for you,’ he says.
‘Ah, so despite me yelling that I was going to do all this, me actually doing it without talking to you bypasses some baseline of respect you thought you were owed. Is that it?’ I ask. The energy has shifted almost imperceptibly. It feels … taut. I want him to push back, want to rile him up, want to win. There’s something almost electric in how close he is, all that tension directed my way. Like I’m playing with fire.
‘I believe being informed of your proposed changes to my realm would be the bare minimum, yes.’ Oh, his tone hasmanaged to reach a level of condescension that surpasses the one achieved by his smile. A milestone.
‘Well, let me clear that up for you. I don’t respect you, Hades. In any way, at all. So I don’t care to pay you even that modicum of respect. Now will you please get out of my way?’
He chuckles like he’s enjoying this. ‘Have you actually thought this through? How exactly are you going to separate the thousands of complex humans that live in my domain into only two categories? Humans hardly exist in a binary.’
I swear, if he talks down to me one more time I’m going to throw him in Tartarus, the deepest, darkest pit in Hell.
‘I’m going to use fear as a mediating and, most importantly, traceable factor to separate those who trigger it from those who feel it. It’s a temporary solution to get those souls who are reduced to a state of pure terror somewhere safe while I work out a more permanent arrangement.’
Hades blinks and something crosses his face. He seems to remember himself, to remember that he’s not supposed to be trying to annoy me any more, that he wants some sort of civility between us. A laughable concept, really, as we’ve just proved, but if he wants to start grovelling to get us on to somewhat decent terms, I’m definitely not going to say no.
‘Any more questions?’ I ask with a saccharine smile, trying to bring his infuriating smugness back. It’s so much easier to deal with than whatever he was trying to do when he was offering help earlier.
‘Why? Why do you want to do this?’
‘Because people are suffering and, unlike you, I care.’
‘Kore,’ he says. This time his voice is soft and the gentility is worse than the condescension.
